


In the Beginning...

by Caedmon



Series: Precious Girl [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Surprise pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 09:12:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8527423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caedmon/pseuds/Caedmon
Summary: Rose has been under the weather for a week or so, and the Doctor resolves to find out why.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, lovelies! 
> 
> You may notice that I already posted this story once. Well, I did. But a couple of _gross_ continuity errors were pointed out to me, so I had to take it down and fix it. 
> 
> All my usual warnings/comments apply:  
> I own nothing but the mistakes.   
> Comments and kudos feed the muse - thank you!  
> Come talk to me! caedmonfaith.tumblr.com
> 
> Beta'd by tenroseforeverandever - thanks, love!

The Doctor strode into his bedroom, expecting to find Rose in bed, asleep. She seemed to be sleeping much more lately, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Her usual sleep hours had extended from ‘closer to six’ to ‘more like eight or nine’, and he was beginning to worry. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the times she’d nodded off in the console room or while watching TV, sometimes mid-conversation. He’d slowly realize that she wasn’t responding to him then crawl out from beneath the console to find her curled on the jump seat, snoozing away. 

This had been going on for a week or so now, and the Doctor was starting to feel more than a bit of concern. Today, if she’d let him, he was going to take her to the infirmary and run a scan on her. He was sure the TARDIS would have let him know if there was anything seriously wrong, but the scan could only ease his mind. 

He hoped.

The door to their bedroom swung open at his touch, and he peered into the dark room. It took just a second for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light - much less time than it would have taken a human - but he was able to see clearly that Rose was not there. 

A small sound came from the en suite on the far side of the bed, and the Doctor grinned. Stepping closer, he heard water running in the shower, and his grin broadened. She must have woken up and decided to shower before breakfast. Perfect.

The Doctor stripped off his jumper and toed off his boots with a smile that was almost wolfish. No reason for his beloved wife to shower alone, not when he was available. 

Tossing his jumper over his shoulder onto the bed and crossing the room in two long strides, he put his hand on the door quietly, hoping to surprise her. He didn’t hear anything from the other side of the door, so he pushed it open, hoping that she would already be under the water and he could slip off his clothes and surprise her under the spray. 

He froze in shock, however, when he stepped into the loo. 

Rose was curled in a ball, propped up against the wall next to the toilet, her face pale and drawn, her hair scraggly and falling over her face. Her eyes were closed with her arms wrapped around her belly, and he assumed she must have heard the door open because she groaned. 

“Doct -”

It was as far as she got before she thrust her entire body forward and pitched the contents of her stomach into the toilet, heaving violently. He was by her side in an instant. 

“Rose? Rose, love! What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer him - couldn’t, really, not with her head hanging over the side of the toilet. Seeing no blood, he crouched beside her, his eyes worried and a bit wild, stroking her back gently in what he hoped was a soothing manner. When she stopped being sick, she raised one weary hand to the handle of the toilet and pulled, flushing the contents away, then groaned and turned her body so that she could collapse back against the wall, curled in on herself again. 

The Doctor stared at her for a moment before it occurred him to do something to help. He ran to the linen closet and got a cloth, wetting it and filling the little glass he kept on his sink. Kneeling beside her, he offered her the glass so she could rinse out her mouth and started sponging her brow. Rose sipped the water and heaved a great sigh, leaning her head back against the wall while he wiped her face. 

“Rose, love, are you alright?”

“Sick,” she grunted out.

“I can see that. What happened?”

Her eyes fluttered open. “I felt nauseous yesterday, but nothing happened. This morning I woke up and felt gross, so I started to get a shower.” She hesitated, pursing her lips as if to tamp down a burp, then gestured at the still-running water of the shower. “I didn’t make it.”

“How long have you been sick in here?” 

“I don’t know, I don’t have time sense,” she snapped, then gave him an apologetic look. He just nodded at her to indicate she should go on, that it was fine. “Thirty minutes or so, I’d suppose.”

The Doctor sent the TARDIS a dirty mental look for not alerting him sooner, and his beloved time ship seemed sheepish. They’d have a talk later. 

“Are you feeling any better now?”

“Some. I think I might be through throwing up.”

“Do you still want a shower?”

Rose eyed him, taking in his bare chest and feet, belt unbuckled. “I want to get clean.”

“I’m staying with you.” At her withering look, he rolled his eyes and went on. “I promise not to seduce you. But you’re weak, and I’m afraid you’ll fall.”

“I’ll be alright,” she murmured, trying to stand. 

He ignored her and helped her up. She was wobbly, and his worry compounded. “After you get cleaned up and dressed, I’m taking you down to the infirmary.”

“That’s not necessary,” she protested. Again, he ignored her, helping her to pull her nightshirt over her head and studiously ignoring her breasts right in front of him. “Really, Doctor. It’s just a bug of some sort.”

“If that’s the case, then we’ll sort it in no time. But I’m checking you out anyway.”

Rose sighed and stepped out of her knickers that he’d lowered to the ground, her hand on his shoulder to stabilize herself. Once he got the knickers free of her feet, he tossed them aside and stood back up, taking one of her hands and putting his other hand on the small of her back to guide her into the shower. He checked the temperature to make sure it wasn’t too hot for her, then propped her against the wall, kissed her forehead and told her he’d be right back. 

“Where are you going?”

“Just getting my own clothes off.”

He did as he’d promised, shucking his jeans and pants, and Rose’s naked silhouette danced behind the frosted glass of the shower doors. As much as the sight would have left him panting any other time, it did little for him now. 

Rose was right, it was probably a bug of some sort. It was likely that he was worrying for nothing. She would be fine tomorrow or the next day, once this worked its way out of her system, and they’d go back to their life as usual. Piece of cake. 

She moaned behind him, and he turned to look at her through the frosted glass. He could tell that she’d wrapped her arms around her belly again and was leaning against the opposite wall. 

“You alright in there?” he called, tossing his clothes aside. 

“M’fine. Just catching my breath.”

“Are you out of breath?” he asked, alarmed. Shortness of breath could indicate any number of other maladies, including -

“No. Just a figure of speech. I just needed to rest for a minute. Are you coming or not? I’m too tired to lift my arms. You’re going to have to wash my hair.”

The Doctor furrowed his brow in concern again. Fatigue and nausea. Malaise. One diagnosis sprung to mind, but he pushed it aside as impossible.

 _It’s just a bug. Probably just a bug,_ he told himself, dismissing the flicker of hope and opening the door to the shower. He stepped in, grabbing the bottle of shampoo as he passed it.

~*~O~*~

She sat on the edge of the bed in the infirmary, looking a bit more bright-eyed after her shower. Her hair was still damp - she hadn’t taken the time to dry it - and her face was clean of makeup. She was still a bit pale and drawn, but he wasn’t sure at the moment whether that was because of what he'd diagnosed or because she now knew the diagnosis. His face may have been pale and drawn as well, he had no way to know. His emotions certainly were a jumble at the moment, but threading through them all was something suspiciously like joy. 

“Pregnant,” Rose repeated.

“Yes.”

“As in, there is a baby growing inside of me.”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, looking at him blankly. “How did I -”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her and she stopped, a hint of red staining her pale cheeks. Then she cleared her throat and went on. “We were careful. I was on the pill, and I’ve never missed one.”

“Apparently the pill failed,” the Doctor replied. 

Rose’s eyes filled with tears, and he slid forward on his rolling stool to take her hand. “Hey, now, don’t cry.”

“I’m only twenty-one, Doctor!”

“You’re twenty-two, Rose.”

She laughed, a harsh sound. “As if that makes much of a difference! I’m far too young to have a baby!”

The Doctor did his best to tamp down the disappointment those words brought up, and to completely ignore the burst of sadness he felt when the next thought occurred to him. 

“Do you want to...do you want to get rid of it?”

“What?” Rose glanced up, startled, then looked offended. “No! God! I could _never_ do that!”

Relief that he couldn’t explain swept through him, and he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. 

“I’m just…” Rose hesitated for a moment, her eyes swelling with tears again, and her lip trembling. She crumpled, bringing her hands up to her face and sobbing. 

The Doctor felt his hearts break. He stood up from his perch on the stool and took the two steps to the infirmary bed, sitting down beside her and then pulling her until they were both lying down, facing each other. He stroked her face gently, trying to dry the wetness from her tears, intending to provide silent support. He found that he couldn’t be silent in the face of her pain. 

“I love you, Rose Tyler. We wanted this someday, didn’t we?”

She looked up at him with red eyes. “We did?”

He shrugged helplessly, feeling sheepish. “I did. I hoped one day you would, too.”

“But this is domestics!” she cried, sniffling hard. “This is as domestic as it gets!”

“I know it is.”

“And you hate domestics!”

“Not with you, precious girl. Everything is wonderful with you.”

She cried harder, and he just pulled her into his arms and let her wet his jumper with her tears. “I’m pregnant,” she cried. “Oh, God, what is Mum going to say?”

It was a damned good question, and he didn’t have an answer. It had taken Jackie a while to get used to the idea of he and Rose as more than just friends - although she’d suspected their feelings for each other long before they had revealed them to each other. Her fury had been extreme when she discovered that they’d handfasted on the planet Repin during a festival, and she’d demanded an Earth wedding that she could witness - something the Doctor was only too happy to give her. Rose had been shocked, but he’d explained that anything that would declare her to the rest of the world as his, he was all in favor of. They’d had a lovely ceremony, small but elegant, and he felt his hearts warm every time he saw his rings on the third finger of her left hand, as Earth tradition dictated.

But a baby. He was sure that no one saw this coming, least of all him. 

“Your mum will more than likely slap me into the next century. But don’t worry, I have a time machine. I’ll come back for you.”

She let out a watery little huff of laughter at that, and he smiled above her head before pulling back to kiss her hair. “It’ll be alright, Rose.”

“Do you...are you alright?” she asked into his chest.

He pondered his answer for just a second. “It’s a lot to take in, a huge change, but I think...I think that yeah, I am. I’m alright with this.”

She looked up at him for the first time since she’d started crying. Her eyes were still shining with tears, but they were wide and hopeful, too. “Yeah?”

The Doctor couldn’t help it, he dipped his head to kiss her softly for just a moment. “Yeah,” he whispered. “Feels a bit surreal right now, but it’s fantastic. We’re going to be parents, Rose!”

“I always wanted to be a mum,” she whispered, looking down again. “I never thought it would happen like this, though. Not so soon.”

“But it has happened, and I’m not sorry.”

“You’re not?”

He tightened his arms around her. “Not at all. I told you, I had hoped we’d have a family eventually. I wanted us to be married for a while, though. Just you and I, together. But that’s alright. You and I will still be together, won’t we? This baby will be brilliant. With your looks and my superior intellect, she’ll be unstoppable!”

“Or he.” Rose smiled a little. “I hope it looks like you,” Rose said sincerely.

“Oi! You take that back,” he admonished, but there was no bite to it. 

She shook her head. “Nothing doing. A little boy with your blue eyes and your smile…”

“Or a little girl with your brown eyes and sweet face,” he countered, then his eyes widened. “Blimey. I’ll have two women in my life that I can’t say ‘no’ to.” Rose giggled a little, and he brought up a hand to wipe her wet cheek again. “Dry your eyes, precious girl. This is a moment for celebration. It shouldn’t have been possible, but here it is. A gift from Time itself.”

“You really see this as a gift?” she asked, her voice tremulous.

He kissed her nose. “I really do.” 

“Well, then, I guess I’m happy, too.”

“You guess?” He cocked an eyebrow at her and the corner of his mouth turned up.

“For now, I guess. I think…” she faltered, then recovered. “I think I’ll feel better when it’s sunk in a bit. And when we’ve told Mum. And Jack.”

“We can go tell Jack right now, if you like. Your mum, too. Or we can sit them down and tell them together.”

Rose shook her head. “No, I think I’d like to lie here a bit.”

“Let’s just stay here, then.” The Doctor settled down into the bed a little more, tugging his wife a bit more comfortably over onto him. She threw a leg across his, and he drew long ellipses on her bare arm as he stared up at the ceiling of the infirmary. 

A baby. A _baby._ This would change everything - about them, about their lives, about their adventures, about their relationship...nothing would be the same. But as wonderful as everything was and as much as he’d enjoyed every second of their lives together before that moment, he couldn’t be the least bit sorry. A baby was hope. A baby was a promise to (and from) the future. A baby was a new beginning.

“You won’t be alone anymore,” Rose murmured, and the Doctor startled a little. She was right. If the Gallifreyan DNA was dominant in this child, there would be another presence in his mind, someone else he could connect to. The quiet in his brain that he’d so hated would be filled with someone else - someone else he’d created. Someone who was a part of him. He marveled a bit, and wondered idly if Time had done this on purpose, as a mercy to him. 

But he felt compelled to clear up one point. “I haven’t been alone for a good, long while, Rose. Not since you ran away with me.”

He felt, rather than saw, her smile, and turned his head to kiss her hair. “You’ve made everything better. You have since the moment I met you. And now you’re giving me the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten.”

“A baby,” she breathed.

“A baby,” he agreed. “A brand new life. Part of me and part of you.”

They lay silently for a few minutes, each thinking private thoughts about the same subject, he was sure, until she spoke again. “Are you ready for this?”

“I am,” he answered at once. “Because it’s nothing more than a new adventure: an adventure with you; an adventure I can’t wait to take.”


End file.
